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Crysis 2 review...
Crysis 2 is like one of those guys you sort of know at a frat party - drunkenly whooping and hollering and hitting on every girl he sees just so that he can get some attention, whether or not it's positive. Sure, he's in great shape and, from afar, it seems like he has a lot to offer, but when you start engaging him in conversation, you realize that there's not much on his mind. Then you find him an hour and a half later passed out half-naked over a toilet after trying to chug 38 kamikazes in a row. In short, Crysis 2 is a game that needs a AA membership and an after-school special on how you should just be yourself.
Let me get this out of the way: the game looks great. It's one of the best looking games that has ever been crafted, in terms of capturing 'realism,' and proudly wears it on its shoulder. Particle effects and terrific lighting litter the landscape, and you'll find yourself stopping to take in the scenery even at the expense of getting reacquainted with your childhood friend, Mr. Bulletwound, during the middle of a firefight. Besides that...wow, is this game a let-down.
For those of you not in the know, Crysis was a game on the PC that touted amazing graphics, however, you had to borrow the Large Hadron Collider to get it up and running properly. The game was treated more like a tech-demo than an actual virtual outing. The developers, Crytek Frankfurt, have promised to create a better single-player experience on this multi-platform game along with delivering a game that can actually run the CryEngine 3 Engine without causing your 360 to explode. Well, they got some of their promises right. The engine does run pretty smoothly on the 360, although there are noticeable hiccups of screen tearing and pop-in textures which really take you out of seeing the wonder of the destruction around you.
However, the single-player, for lack of a better saying, is slapped together and tragically handled. There's no character depth whatsoever to anybody in the game; constantly, you'll have the "Black Hawk Down" syndrome where you'll have no idea who's talking to you or what their motivations are in the story. The only character you'll ever actually be able to discern from the throngs of bland meat-vessels is the sole chick, but that's only because the developers felt like a female presence was absolutely needed. See The Smurfette Principle for more on that topic.
What's the story? I played through the entire thing, and I still couldn't tell you. It's something concerning an alien virus that turns people into aliens, but it only selects certain individuals and they've been apart of our planet for a long time and...screw it. There's no story here. Just transitional pieces that bring you from point A to point B. I thought we were past this in first-person shooters where there could be deeper storytelling than just 'shoot that guy, and blow this shit up,' but I guess I was terribly mistaken. Not that Crytek didn't try copying every successful first-person shooter franchise out there for the game; when it's not trying to imitate Modern Warfare, it tries to be more like Half-Life 2. When Half-Life 2 doesn't seem to suffice, it attempts to rip out story ideas from Halo. What's worse is that it commits the biggest sin of first-person shooters - a silent protagonist. Barring Portal and BioShock, the majority of silent protagonists are mishandled terribly and doesn't add anything to the game other than providing an easy way to just bark orders at the player for them to follow.
The gameplay is standard fare with some interesting tweaks that don't really go anywhere. Your Nanosuit has the ability to switch between a heavy armor, stealth, and agile mode at the touch of a button. It's just too bad the customization system doesn't follow through with the initial premise of the suit. There's a couple of tiers of upgrading the suit, but it doesn't fundamentally change anything should you desire to just fly through the game with you primary suit. The shooting segments are competent enough, but damn, is the A.I. finicky. At one moment they'll be stalking you behind a turned over truck, the next, they'll be attempting to run through said truck with no success. There's no excuse for having so many glitches with the A.I. for a game with this big of a budget. You can also pick up items and use them in combat, such as explosive barrels, but because you can only throw them about five inches in front of you, it's suggested that you just stick to your guns when the bullets start flying. The enemy types are pretty recycled so if you're looking for diversity, you might want to seek it elsewhere. Other review sites say that the game (compared to other FPS of these days) is satisfyingly long with about 12 hours of gametime, but you soon realize that it's all padded out.
Because of the physics system, you'll encounter strange invisible walls in the game where you can, in theory, easily jump over it, but apparently God forbids it. Because of the frequently enclosed architecture, there are also moments where you'll be constantly hitting your head against the ceiling making you seem less like a imposing marine and more like a bumbling stooge. This may seem like a strange gripe, but I also have to comment on the extreme lack of in-world advertising. Why do I complain about this? It's because it's New York. There's advertising every other foot you walk. Apparently in the future, there are only 5 companies left to advertise their goods, and one of them is Crytek (their slogan is the hypocritical 'Go Out and Play' sign). The bright part of the entire ordeal is the multiplayer where you can jump in with other Nanosuit-wearing thespians of gunnery. Tragically, you'll have to grind through a good amount before all the modes and extra assortment of goodies can be unlocked, and for this writer, that's a damn old game design that I want gone.
Crysis 2 is an extremely disappointing game. What it offers has been done before and done better. Unless you just want pretty graphics, there's no real reason for you to pick up this game. In fact, I would say this game is the summation of what I fear first-person shooters will attempt to aim for in the future. It's a mere lump of soulless clay that attempts to be everything that has come before and fails miserably.
My Rating: AVOID
And what the hell is up with that terrible hip-hop rendition of "New York, New York?"
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Comment
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Comment by Crosshair on March 31, 2011 at 5:32pm -
@G.H. Gorog
I really like what you had to say.
I bought the PS3 version of the game and most of what you have to say are true for both versions. Something that really bugs me about the PS3 version is that you can hardly do any customizations for the controller. You can't switch the fire trigger from R1 to the R2 and you cant switch out the melee attack so you have to push down on the right stick. It might not be a big deal to some people, but I just seems odd to not let ANY customization.
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Comment by C.H. Gorog on March 30, 2011 at 1:21pm -
@Everyone - Thanks for all of your comments, everybody!
@DavidBray - I only mentioned what truly stood out to me. The gun variety is really lacking - the only one that even came close to being interesting was the microwave gun, and even that got old quick when you realized finding ammo for it was usually a trek. I like the idea of vertical levels in term of game design; however, the idea is never taken any further. I only mentioned the things that actually stood out to me (whether they be negatives or positives).
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Comment by HULLDUCK on March 30, 2011 at 11:53am -
@DavidBray
That's because the flaws heavily outweigh the positives. In fact, there's not really any positives I can even think of. It's not terrible, and there are a lot of mediocre aspects to the game, but the only truly above average thing is the graphics.
What do you think about the gun types?
Little Variety. Wish there were more unique guns as well.
What is the balance like?
Balance is fine, strictly multiplayer-wise; I've heard snipers are overpowered. I will say that the higher your level, the more powerful you are, which is a pain since you'll often be in a game with a dominating 30+. Unlike CoD, the higher levels are harder to kill - almost like an rpg. A positive note would be that they have a "recruits" for lvl 10 and under, except I kept playing with level 17s and such in that game mode.
Is there a coherent level feel?
Think I answered this above. I haven't played single player, but I'd assume it would be even more prominent.
Is there suitable variety?
Judging ONLY by multiplayer, no. It all seems to take place in new york. It's not like you'll be jumping from snow level to jungle level to city level.
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Comment by DavidBray on March 30, 2011 at 10:07am -
All the flaws but none of the positives. All you say is that the graphics are nice.
for next time:
What do you think about the gun types?
What is the balanace like?
Is there a coherent level feel?
Is there suitable variety?
You need to pry deeper than mere bashing for a review.
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Comment by Palladiamorsdeus on March 28, 2011 at 3:42pm
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Just for future reference, Crysis 2 was released on PC and PS3 as well as the 360.
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Comment by Chris Bartel on March 28, 2011 at 6:34am -
The more I play Crysis 2 the more it becomes apparent that the writer "Richard Morgan" has no clue how to write a story, this guy came out and called MW2 and halo's story bullshit and yet he can't even write a story that is coherent and makes any sense at all. Anytime a writer calls someone else's work bullshit and then produces crap like this the person needs to be smacked for being a douche bag, while Crytek may be able to produce a pretty amazing piece of tech demo with crysis and crysis 2 that's all they really are is tech demos.
@Jochem Brak
I wouldn't call uncharted 2 a shooter, it's actually a 3rd person action game, that would be like comparing a final fantasy game to crysis 2 completely different genre's while game developers should be required to take every approach possible to make games that don't feel repetitive the writers should be required to make a coherent story that actually has a point.
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Comment by HULLDUCK on March 27, 2011 at 10:47pm
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PS: @ Jason Straub.
I liked the fact that you could use power armor in any form; it'd be dumb actually if I couldn't sprint while I was invisible. I did think that it was annoying that I couldn't run without using energy from the suit; the protagonist must be really lazy.
@Jochem Brak
Halo reach was a lot like the nano suit actually, so don't know why you made that comparison. The problem with the game being 12 hours long and repetitive is that it makes you not want to finish - and I'm sure a lot of people won't because of that. I'd rather the story be 4-5 hours long but fun the entire time. That's like saying a 3 hour movie is better than a hour and a half movie; you shouldn't make something longer if it doesn't need to be.
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Comment by HULLDUCK on March 27, 2011 at 10:02pm
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Great review. I've played the game and agree with most of what was said; however, i will say there's a huge lack of focus on multiplayer - whereas that's where I spent most of my time. This doesn't mean the multiplayer is good, it just means that it uselessly wastes a lot of your time. I've played for 10 hours and I'm level 16; more than two-thirds of the multiplayer options are locked. In order to even play a hardcore mode, you have to be level 39 (note that the max level one can obtain is 50).There are only about 15 guns, and it takes hours to unlock a new weapon. Grinding in multiplayer to get better suit modules and the like is pretty fun, but any excitement that might come with this is void when 8 out of 10 games are laggy; 2 of those 8 games are so laggy that you cannot even play. Because my biggest pet peeve is in the game (voting for maps), it took me 10 hours to get the 'play a match on every map' achievement - that's bull! I know games are trying to copy CoD's build, but this often leads to lack of originality or stale gameplay.
I could go on much longer, but since theres a 90% chance this comment won't be read by anybody, I'm going to stop wasting my time.
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Comment by Travis Pickle on March 27, 2011 at 1:27pm -
I nearly bought this but decided on a cautious rental and I'm glad because so far i aint got a clue what's going on!? even the decent graphics are a bit irrelevant because I think frame rate is an issue and it just feels tired, predator style aliens and feeble humans I hope it gets better because im tempted to just go back to Mass Effect 2 or even Little Big Planet 2 at least they are fun and rewarding!
I loved the first Crysis open world and natural environment until the aliens arrived and ruined the game for me and it wasn't a big game but I was really looking forward to see what they'd added to the things that worked in the first one yet is seems like a huge step back
;(
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Comment by Zach Evans on March 26, 2011 at 3:03pm -
ive been through a little bit of it and, single-player wise atleast, i think this hame is the good swift kick in the ass that fps's needed...until brink come out XD
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